South Korea Flirts With Another Power Disaster

South Korea set a new record for power consumption on Wednesday, the third consecutive day of very cold temperatures and busiest work-wise after the lead-in and celebration of Christmas.

And the country’s energy monitors were forced to warn that power outages might occur because demand had surpassed the limit that the government considers safe.

Demand hit 76.58 million kilowatts at 11:01 a.m., surpassing the record of 75.17 million kilowatts that was set eight days ago on Dec. 18. South Korea had 79.16 million kilowatts of power available.

Advertisement

The Korea Power Exchange, which monitors supply and demand, makes the information available in real time on its Web site in Korean here and in English here.

European Pressphoto Agency

Officials at Korea Power Exchange monitored surging consumption of electricity on Dec. 11. Consumption set a new record on Wednesday morning, on the third consecutive day of frigid temperatures around South Korea.

Wednesday’s demand peak was higher than the energy consumed on Sept. 15, 2011, when the government resorted to rolling blackouts for several hours because an unusual surge of late summer heat propelled demand for air conditioners.

On that day, electricity demand peaked at 67.3 million kilowatts. But the country had supply of just over 70 million kilowatts, a figure that was later revised downward to 67.5 million kilowatts, meaning South Korea came dangerously close to a total blackout.

On Wednesday, South Korea’s energy supply amounted to 79.2 million kilowatts. And the peak level of consumption went into the 4 million kilowatts that government officials designate should be held as a reserve.

This time, however, they did not resort to rolling blackouts.

Why do extreme weather days bring South Korea to the brink of its energy supply? In other words, why doesn’t the country comfortably have enough power to meet its needs even in extreme conditions?

A government spokesman said Wednesday afternoon there are currently no supply constraints. All the power plants that South Korea has are running normally. In September 2011, the consumption problem was worsened by the fact that some power plants had been shut down for maintenance.

With nothing to be done on the supply side in the short term, South Korea can only work on demand. So far, that has mainly meant government officials penalizing themselves with thermostat settings that leave their offices cold in the winters and sweltering in the summers. And they occasionally go on a propaganda campaign urging shopping malls, office buildings and others to conserve.

No one, however, has tackled the harder work of ending government subsidies of energy consumption, which distort users’ perceptions about the cost of energy.

Power subsidies are a glaring example of a practice from South Korea’s days as a developing country that now harms it as a developed country. But politicians can’t muster the will to change them.

That’s partly because some of the biggest beneficiaries of such subsidies are farmers, who get about 70% to 80% of their electricity paid for by the government — or really the taxpayer. The subsidies extend even to the big factories run by South Korea’s largest and most profitable companies. Firms making billions of dollars in annual profit get around 10% of their electricity in their factories paid for by the government and taxpayer, one of the hidden sides of Korea Inc. in action.

As long as market signals are warped, South Korea will never get around to making the proper investments in conservation methods and technologies.

And it will continue to flirt with disaster on days like Wednesday.

With temperatures expected to warm up on Thursday and through the weekend, South Korea’s power consumption may not reach levels that raise the specter of blackouts. But another trip into the deep freeze — with low temperatures from -10 to -15 Celsius, or about 14 to 5 Fahrenheit — is forecast for the country next Wednesday and Thursday.